L.A.’s Troi Irons Impresses Brooklyn’s Afropunk Crowd —And Vice Versa

Troi Irons On Stage at Afropunk/ photo by Kyra Kverno

One of the highlights of this August’s Brooklyn edition of Afropunk Fest was indie alt-rocker Troi Irons, who tells Brooklyn Roads: “I decided to play music for a living because it is the only thing that makes me deeply happy. People contribute to the world best when they’re fulfilled.” She grew up listening to the likes of Green Day, System of a Down and Brooklyn’s own Sufjan Stevens, studying the structure and rules of this music as well as “how and when to break them.”

“The lyrical content in those songs was always honest,” Irons tells us. “They sang about faith, politics, sex, anything that affected their daily lives. Genuine lyrics are so important to me when I’m crafting my own music. We share a human experience and that’s what makes music relatable.” She also cites Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninoff as influences, citing the latter’s “Prelude in C# Minor” as something she wishes she’d written.

Irons, who writes all her own songs, tells us she is excited about ANTIHERO — her new mini-album releasing September 14 —”because it’s the first time I’ve produced something in its entirety

Troi Irons On Guitar /photo by Kyra Kverno

. On my other projects, a male producer [would] add a kick or a synth and they’d get credited as composers and producers. People tend to assume that person did the bulk of the work and I’m just one of those artists that slaps their name on things. So I self-produced this project and I’m releasing it on my own LLC. It’s very empowering.” The album is lyrically empowering as well.

“I call it ANTIHERO because I used to think of myself as the hero of my own universe,” Irons says. “I have slowly been coming to terms with the fact that I’m flawed and that’s okay. I’ve been through things and that’s okay. It doesn’t mean I’m damaged. It means I survived.” To potential listeners she notes: “I think there’s a song for everyone on this project.”

Afropunk Impressions   

A first-time performer at Afropunk, the Los Angeles-based Irons tells Brooklyn Roads that, “The biggest thing I noticed was the safe space. People had on all types of outfits that I know they spent time on. They were really celebrating themselves in ways I know they don

Troi Irons On Stage With Duckwrth / photo by Kyra Kverno

‘t get to do while working at [a store] or in an office or at school. That was a beautiful thing to see.” She was also impressed by how much the Brooklyn Afropunk audience “seemed to really want to discover new things.”

“As soon as the crowd heard music, regardless of how small the artist, they would migrate to the stage and start dancing,” she says. “In L.A., no one dances; everyone [there] waits for the ‘co-sign.’”